Since 1992
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80 for Brady
(Paramount Pictures)
Lucas Allen
Love him or hate him, Tom Brady certainly earns his status as the GOAT (Greatest of all Time) for his many fans as quarterback for the New England Patriots. Not to mention, the team’s miracle comeback win in Super Bowl LI could make for a pretty good movie. However, we’ve got “80 for Brady,” which revolves around a comedy adventure taking place on the day of the big game. It’s inspired by a true story, though certain embellishments takes it to a whole different level.
It’s 2017, and the Patriots had just won the AFC and will take on the Atlanta Falcons for the upcoming Super Bowl game. Four life-long friends Lou (Lily Tomlin), Trish (Jane Fonda), Betty (Sally Field), and Maura (Rita Moreno) enjoy their time together as both the team’s fans and admirers of Tom Brady. Lou soon gets the idea of the four of them going down to Texas to watch the game and getting closer to their idol. After winning some tickets from a local radio station, the four gals make it to the Lone Star State for a weekend of fun and adventure.
It’s not long before they start getting into one crazy situation after the next. Trish becomes an instant celebrity from writing erotic fan fiction involving tight end Rob Gronkowski and begins seeing a former NFL player (Harry Hamlin), while Betty enters in a hot wings competition hosted by celebrity chef Guy Fieri. At a party, Maura ingests some unusual gummies and finds herself in a poker game, while Lou starts to panic over Betty losing the tickets. Once the big day arrives, revelations will come to light that’ll have all four of them to take another look at their personal lives.
The movie started off sincerely enough when it goes into the foursome’s superstitious nature of enjoying the game before going into the backstory of how they became fans together. It’s a really sweet way to get the story off the ground, as well as establish each of their differing personalities and lives. But once the Super Bowl plotline kicks in, the whole thing then devolves into a sitcom and a pretty bad one, at least not for its target audience. There are so many cheap jokes and plot contrivances that it becomes another example of a comedy focusing more on its stars than just trying to be funny.
It does try to stay sweet by exploring each of the character’s reason to want to be at the game especially with Lou having the most character development. Unfortunately, all that sweetness keeps getting undermined by the script’s attempts at outrageous humor that don’t always land. Though you have four great actresses trying to sell the story, not even their talents could save an annoyingly mediocre script.
Naturally, the game itself becomes part of the film’s third act. Any Patriots fan who watches it can relive the drama and the excitement of seeing Brady and company achieve their come-from-behind victory. But then the movie itself has the audacity to throw in a fictionalized moment that dumbs it down for the sake of its own writing. It’s a comically bad call on the part of the filmmakers that would make any Patriots fan groan like any actual Super Bowl loss.
The only thing that prevents this film from being a 100% failure is the charm and good-nature soul of its four leading women. Tomlin and Fonda both share the same comic chemistry that fans of “Gracie & Frank” will recognize, while Moreno and Field bring their clashing personalities together with nice ease. There’s a nice wealth of supporting roles and cameos by some recognizable actors though the film made a terrible waste of “Seinfeld” veteran Bob Balaban as Betty’s overly codependent husband. As for Brady, he’s fine in his small amount of scenes, so don’t expect any Oscar-caliber acting except when he’s on the field.
If there’s any other nice thing to say about “80 for Brady” is at least it did set out to be crowd-pleasing entertainment for its target demographic of older viewers. For the rest of you, stay home and wait for baseball season to start unless you’re the type of person who enjoys such middling entertainment. On the other hand, more like middling and annoying.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: PG-13 (for brief strong language, some drug content, and some suggestive references)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 2.25 Stars (Out of Four)
